Entries in sports coupe
(3)

Hyundai showed a concept for the Genesis Sedan replacement at Detroit, so there is little surprise that the Genesis Coupe’s replacement would be previewed at another auto show; this time in South Korea.

When Audi launched this generation TT in 2007, I drove with friend and former colleague Tom Lankard. I mention this for a couple of reasons: 1) Tom is one hell of a driver/rider, and 2) as a California native he knows the roads around the area Audi had chosen for the launch better than the folks who laid out the route. This came in handy as someone had chosen the twistiest, tightest roads you could imagine to demonstrate the handling prowess of this hybrid (aluminum and steel) car. Lucky for me, someone who can suffer mightily from motion sickness, we were in convertibles (we drove the coupe the day before on the roads near our hotel) and I was driving. That meant I was able to hold off the nausea by the fact that I was in control of the car, and could slow down when things got a bit much.

The Veloster frames Hyundai’s predicament rather well. It is bold, innovative (it has one door on the driver’s side and two doors on the passenger’s), well-priced, and full of features. In addition, the package is tightly drawn around the wheels and tires, and topped by a fast-sloping fastback that gives it a sporting feel from the driver’s seat. Oh, and it’s practical. The split-fold rear seat and deep cargo area mean you can carry a decent load of stuff under the glassy hatchback.

On the other hand, the Veloster never lives up to the image it projects. The engine is bereft of torque, road noise can get quite loud and annoying, the steering is — in a word — horrible, the suspension needs tuning by an experienced engineer, adults sitting in the back seat will need cooperative friends in the front buckets and will find entry and exit problematic, the clutch has little feel, shifts are as much by sound as feel, and — though this may have been a problem with this particular example — the engine management computer had a bad habit of dropping power just as the clutch was engaged.